Eli Lilly Offers Update On Job Cuts

INDIANAPOLIS -- Eli Lilly and Co. said job cuts in its headquarters
city of Indianapolis may total 500 positions by this fall, as the
drug maker carries out a broader cost-cutting strategy announced
last year.

Lilly said there have been ongoing cuts at four Indianapolis
locations, including its corporate headquarters, according to a
letter sent earlier this week to the Indiana Department of
Workforce Development.

The cuts are expected to be permanent. A company spokeswoman
said the reductions are part of the plan announced last year.

Lilly said in September it would eliminate 5,500 jobs over two
years and reorganize into five business units. That amounted to a
work force reduction of nearly 14 percent, to 35,000 by the end of
2011 from the 40,500 it employed last year.

The maker of the anti-psychotic Zyprexa and the antidepressant
Cymbalta employed 39,200 people at the end of this year’s
second quarter, a total that has dropped steadily for the past
several years.

Company officials have said the new total excludes hirings in
high-growth emerging markets and Japan.

Lilly and several other big drug makers have been carrying out
job cuts and cost-reduction plans as they prepare for the loss of
patents protecting many key drugs in the coming years.

Lilly loses patent protection for its top-seller, Zyprexa, next
year and its second-best seller, Cymbalta, in 2013. The company
hopes to counter those losses with drugs from its own development
pipeline, which includes potential treatments for cancer, diabetes,
and Alzheimer’s disease.

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